The Miz: “I’m a Casual Gamer, and I’m Awesome”

Upon arriving at the hotel for the WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 review event two weeks ago, THQ had left itineraries of what to expect. And there was one item of particular interest: a “Creation Workshop” in which we would create a wrestler in the new game and have it judged by a “special WWE guest.”

Who could it be? We were left in suspense until after the presentation the following morning, when we were all introduced to the new United States Champion, Mike Mizanin, better known simply as The Miz.

The Miz took the podium, expressed his excitement for the game (which ships tomorrow), and then got right down to business, wanting to know why his ranking in the game was so low. He felt disparaged that there were actually Divas who had rankings higher than his 78, and made it clear that in next year’s game, he had better come in with at least a 90, or else there would be trouble.

(That his ex-tag team partner, John Morrison, was ranked considerably higher didn’t help, as he looked over the roster to see just how he fared.)

Following the presentation, we got to go check out the game and conduct interviews with members of the development team, as well The Miz himself, who was kind enough to take the time, on his birthday no less, to come out and see us.

Being surrounded by Superstars a couple of months ago was a little overwhelming, but it made handling one this time a little easier, so once there was an available opening, I sat down and had a brief discussion with “Captain 78.”

To start off, I congratulated The Miz on his recent United States Championship win over Kofi Kingston…

The Miz: Thank you very much, it’s been long deserved.

Kombo: And happy birthday, by the way.

The Miz: Thank you very much.

Kombo: So, I was wondering: outside of the WWE SmackDown vs. Raw video games, do you play many video games?

The Miz: I play video games, I’m a “casual gamer,” like I’ve told most people. Here’s the fun part: I play the PSP, when I’m on the road with Kofi Kingston or Hornswoggle, they like to challenge me in Madden.

These two are gamers; they stay up at midnight on “Madden Holiday,” as they like to call it. And they get the video game, they play all night, they study it, they know the ins and outs of the whole game and everything like that…

And then I get in there and play them on PSP… and beat them. That’s how good I am.

I don’t need to practice, I don’t need to know anything. Kofi and Hornswoggle are good; I’m just great.

Kombo: You describe yourself as a “casual gamer,” but a lot of people see casual gamers as children or grandparents, or people who play fitness games and such. How would you describe being a casual gamer?

The Miz: I’m not into the Wii, with the whole yoga board. I’m not doing that kind of stuff.

As a casual gamer, I mean I don’t sit there and play all day, every day; I play a bit here and there. You know, I have a 72-in-1 cocktail video game, all the 80’s games, so I enjoy playing that.

Every time before I go out, I enjoy playing Marble Madness on it. I don’t know how many gamers can say they can play Marble Madness still, to this day.

So, I mean casual, meaning that I play a lot of 80’s video games. I don’t play the new, up and coming stuff. I enjoy the oldschool.

Kombo: Which one would you say is your favorite to play of the oldschool stuff?

The Miz: Oldschool, I’m going to have to say Galaga is my favorite. I don’t know, there’s just something about shooting little bugs, shooting bees out of the air, y’know?

I’m also into a little Ms. Pac-man, and also the original Street Fighter. That’s a lot of fun, and I have Street Fighter II as well.

Kombo: How good are you at the original Street Fighter? Because in that one, they made the special moves a lot harder to do; are you any good at those?

The Miz: I’m okay; I like Street Fighter II more than Street Fighter I. I like to use Blanka, and I like playing as Chun Li; I like beating people with the chick.

Kombo: How about Super Mario Bros.? Is that one you like?

The Miz: I played Super Mario Bros. I remember back in the day, when they had a “Nintendo Challenge,” I only heard about it one year, it was really big in Cleveland, and I went for it. You had to play… I think it was Tetris, Super Mario Bros., and there was a racing one…

Kombo: Rad Racer?

The Miz: Rad Racer! Do you remember that? There was only one year of that…

Kombo: I think so; they called it the Nintendo World Championships. There are still some of those cartridges around, and they fetch thousands of dollars now on eBay.

The Miz: *shocked* Really?

Kombo: Really.

The Miz: Because I remember, I played it one year, and I made it to where they have fifty people playing, and the top ten highest get to go to the big spot. And I made it to the round, and I ended up losing.

But still, it was still fun, probably the most fun I’ve ever had. I remember that for Super Mario Bros. You really wanted to get to the end of the racing game, because Tetris is where you could score all the points.

There’s a logic to that thing, a science!

Kombo: Borrowing the question from a friend here, but looking back at your tag team with John Morrison, if your team were compared with the Mario Bros., which one would you say is Mario, and which one is Luigi?

The Miz: I would say I am Mario and he is Luigi, because Mario is the lead singer. Mario is the edge, Mario is the talent.

Luigi is just a back-up, you know what I mean? What do girls want to do when they see a band? Do they want the lead singer, or do they want the lead guitarist? They want that singer, they want the sexy singer.

I would say that in Miz & Morrison, John Morrison was like… back-up vocals. *laughs*

Kombo: So while “Luigi” might be able to jump higher, you’ve got the whole package…

The Miz: Yeah, Luigi is cool, I like his green outfit. And you know, John Morrison had good outfits. But the fact is, I’m the brains, I’m the whole thing, like Super Mario is.

Kombo: Plus, they even named the game after him.

The Miz: Right, it’s the Super Mario Bros.! Not the Super Luigi Bros., no one cares about Luigi!

Kombo: So, speaking of John Morrison, since you’re now the U.S. Champion and he’s the Intercontinental Champion, are you going to challenge him at Bragging Rights?

The Miz: That would be cool, wouldn’t it? I think it would be a match that people would really want to see. Will they do it? I don’t know. I have no idea, everything’s set up for it. I mean, I’m the U.S. title holder, he’s the Intercontinental title holder, we were a tag team for a year and a half, and I think he made some comments about me on ECW…

So, basically… I mean, we’ve always wanted to do a feud, I think we could steal the show if we were allowed to do whatever we wanted… but we’ll see what happens.

But I’ll obviously win.

(Note: This interview was conducted before the lineup for the Bragging Rights pay-per-view was established, so you can thank me for giving him the idea later. –Ed.)

Kombo: Here’s something different: a lot of wrestlers make the transition to the big screen and film movies; The Rock is particularly notable–

The Miz: He’s actually good, he’s a good actor.

Kombo: I was wondering, if you were to film a video game movie, which character would you want to play as?

The Miz: If I were cast for a movie? To start off with, I’d want to be a sidekick, not the main character. If you remember how Rock did it, it was in The Mummy; he wasn’t the main character, but he was still in it on the side, had that one appearance, and he got The Scorpion King out of it.

That’s something I would love to do; I’d rather be in a movie where people remember it, rather than be a John Cena, where “I’m already a star, I’m gonna go star in my own movie.” You never acted before in a movie in your life, why would you want to be the main character in that movie already? Then do it again?

Kombo: Something else I was wondering about is that I’ve seen you and Chris Jericho feuding on Twitter; it actually got me to do something with my Twitter account, so I could keep watching you guys.

The Miz: Really? Alright…

Kombo: You two were tremendous on that.

The Miz: Thank you.

Kombo: Do you think you two might expand upon that, with you going after his Unified Tag Team Title at some point?

The Miz: People have been asking about that, ever since the Twitter feud started. The Twitter feud started because I was bored.

We were both on the European tour, and the European tour is like, it’s long and grueling, and you’re on the phone a lot, and on the internet, and it started when he called me “gay.” He just said “you’re gay.”

And I said “you flat-iron your hair, and I’m gay?” And then it just escalated from there for about two months, and then we just said “eh, that’s enough of that.”

But, we had fun with it, and would I like to do something with Chris Jericho? Absolutely, I think he’s one of the best in our business, and I think he is a huge talent, and I could learn a lot from him.

Kombo: If you went after the Unified Tag Team titles, who do you think you would pick as your partner? I’m guessing “Starship Pain” is out.

The Miz: Who would I pick as a tag team partner if I wanted to go after the Unified Tag titles? I was in a tag team for so long that I’m so happy being a singles wrestler. So I don’t know if I’d want to go after the Unified Tag Team Championship; I just got out of a tag team where we did everything and anything we could possibly do in that tag team.

I mean, we defeated everybody. They would have to make teams to go against us, and I’m kind of sick of that. I enjoyed back when they had awesome tag teams like The Rock ‘n Sock or the Legion of Doom, remember those days?

But they’ve kind of gotten away from that, and I want to go singles now because the tag team just isn’t what it used to be.

Kombo: Finally, is there anything you would like to tell the readers of Kombo.com?

The Miz: *thinks for a second* Whenever you play the game, SmackDown vs. Raw 2010, and you see the ranking of a 78… always think that it’s a typo. It was misdone, it should have been an 87, the person who did it was dyslexic. He didn’t understand what was going on at the time. Now he understands, next year’s game will have me as a higher ranking.

But enjoy playing with me, as I do. I enjoy playing with myself a lot… uh, in the video game. And always remember that I’m The Miz, and I’m awesome.

You can catch The Miz Monday nights on WWE Raw, 9pm EST on USA in the U.S.A., and at 9:15pm and midnight EST on The Score in Canada, as well as the WWE Bragging Rights pay-per-view this Sunday, where he will indeed face off against his former tag team partner and “Luigi” of the duo, John Morrison, to see which is the better brand, Raw or SmackDown.

And of course, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 ships tomorrow, and will be available on just about every platform under the sun, shy of the PC.

The Miz was also pleased to note that this year, they gave him his hat, which is why it’s a pity he stopped wearing it a month or two ago.

And for those wondering, in what can only be described as an eerie coincidence, my created wrestler for the contest was Captain Lou Albano as Mario (though nearly everyone mistook it for Ron Jeremy). Lost out to a guy who made himself. If only I had a bigger mustache!

A big thanks goes out to The Miz for coming out and taking the time to do the interview (on his birthday, no less) and judging the Create-a-Superstar contest. He is definitely awesome.